Scot leads - and eyes place on 2012 Ryder Cup team

Laird held a one-shot cushion after 36 holes at Bay Hill following a superb second round of 65 on Friday.

And the Glasgow-born 28-year-old managed to double that advantage with a third round of 70 last night, finishing 11 under par and two clear of playing partner Spencer Levin.

"This is a carry over from the end of last year and it gives you the confidence to go out and hold the lead and hopefully do the same tomorrow," Laird said.

"If I can win tomorrow it will mean a lot."

Laird, a resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, who graduated from Colorado State University, has been living and playing in the US for the past decade. However, he said his lengthy spell away from home soil did not affect his ambitions of taking on the Americans at the next Ryder Cup.

"It's on my mind constantly," Laird said.

"It would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, goals and achievements for me in my career. Just because I've been over here, started college here in 2000, doesn't mean I don't think of myself as Scottish and European. To make that team would mean everything to me. Next year I'm going to do everything I can to get on that team."

Laird, whose previous win came in Las Vegas in 2009, started steadily with three pars, but then rolled in a hat-trick of birdies from the fourth.

The world No.40 holed from around five feet on the fourth and fifth, before two-putting from long range for birdie on the par-five sixth.

At that point he was four shots clear, but narrowly missed the chance to make it four in a row on the next before playing partner Spencer Levin cut the gap with a birdie on the same hole.

Laird then did well to salvage a bogey on the eighth after his approach to the green plugged in a bunker.

With water lurking dangerously behind the pin, Laird played away from the flag and saw his recovery roll off the front of the putting surface.

From there he chipped to five feet and calmly holed to avoid a costly double bogey.

Laird also saved par after missing the ninth green with his approach, before picking up another birdie on the par-five 12th.

Consecutive bogeys on the 14th and 15th threatened to derail the Scot's challenge, but a birdie on the 16th - making it four birdies on the four par-fives - stopped the rot.

Tiger Woods began the day six shots off the lead but ended it ten behind after a 74 which included an eagle and two birdies, but also four bogeys and a double-bogey six.

The former world No.1 eagled the par-five sixth from 11 feet, but bogeyed the eighth and then threw his driver to the ground in frustration after another wayward tee shot on the ninth as his faint hopes of contending ran away from him.